Just Like We Planned
by CorrieFan23
Summary: A one-shot about Ronnie and Jack and how their marriage might have been had they stayed together. Set 30 years in the future. Hope you enjoy. Please review, it would be much appreciated.


_**This is a one-shot that I wrote a long time ago. I know Jack and Ronnie are no longer a couple but just imagine they are and it's now thirty years on. Jack is ill and unable to communicate properly so Ronnie writes this letter to him, doing the talking for them both.**_

_**Please review. Hope you enjoy.**_

Jack,

Well, here we are – thirty years of marriage and we've never looked back. Actually, if I said I'd never looked back then I'd be lying. I look back on the past we've shared quite often. Sometimes it fills me with regret and sometimes with happiness but I really wouldn't change a second – even the times when you strayed, looking for a different kind of love to the type I was prepared to give.

You tore my heart to pieces and the days and nights without you were the worst of my life. I couldn't bare to be without you...but if I'm honest, I couldn't bare to be with you either. You destroyed my emotions, stamping on them as if they meant nothing to you.

I remember the day I found out about you and Selina. Roxy told me. We were stood on the top of the stairs in the Vic and she was begging me not to go. I didn't believe her at first. I didn't want to. I'd seen that scene so many times in my life. I moved around a lot and Roxy could never survive alone. I found you sat at the bar in Fargo's, a bottle of champagne already on ice, ready to celebrate me moving in. I hit you. Do you remember? I conjured up all the strength in my body and brought my fist to your face with one almighty thud. Well, you deserved it.

That night I couldn't bring myself to do anything. I just laid down on the sofa with my head resting on Roxy's lap, tears pouring down my face. I'd never experienced pain like it. Not since the day I lost my little girl. Then there was Tanya and after that you committed the ultimate betrayal – you had a child with my younger sister. You and Roxy. You had what I wanted. Yet you told me I was all you wanted. I was so confused, so messed up. I think people thought I was having a mental breakdown and looking back on it now, I probably was.

We had a rocky road to the altar that's for sure. Throwing insults back and forth, getting involved in fierce arguments; battling the thin line between love and hate. We're meant to be though, aren't we Jack? Me and you. Together forever – fighting whatever tomorrow brings. That's how it's always been. Especially since you got ill.

We've been blessed with three beautiful daughters and one very handsome son (he must take after you). Isabella, our youngest child, has now flown the nest age 25. It took her a while but I really wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Losing my child all those years ago taught me one thing – family means the world. Sophia, our eldest child is getting married at the age of 29. She didn't want anything posh, just her friends and family in the same room for one night only. A way of celebrating the true meaning of life – love and happiness.

Then there are our twins, Joshua and Joanna. Our beautiful twins, age 27. I can remember when they were born and you held Joanna with one arm and Joshua with the other. We still have a photograph somewhere, I'll have to find it later and show you. It might help you remember – I just don't know what's going on in your head anymore; I don't understand.

The twins are following in our footsteps you know? They're the owners of a brand new nightclub on the other side of town. It's so much better than R&R used to be, even though that place will always own a special part of my heart. They're so professional and I just know that they'll keep expanding their business until they've reached the ultimate success. That's who they are, just like their dad.

I'm sure you're proud of them. Inside. You just can't express it can you? Not since you got ill. You're still alive, still breathing but you can't respond. You're locked in. Locked inside a body that won't let you out. A body that won't give you the freedom you so desperately crave.

That's why I'm writing you this letter; so you always have the memories. A piece of history to look back on – our history. A piece of writing that tells you about our beloved children and the things in the past.

Now that we're old and grey, we've got the time to contemplate what could and couldn't have been. Who we would have ended up with if we hadn't have found each other. If we were ever truly happy when we were apart and before we first met.

It's the little things that make life so special. Seeing the ground covered with snow on Christmas Day, seeing you, the man I love every day of my life, hearing our children's voices on the end of the telephone telling us about the new lives they have recently embarked on. I won't lie to you, a tear rolls down my cheek at the very thought of me and you not being around to see the rest of their lives because, whether we like it or not, this dysfunctional fairytale is inevitably going to end.

But as I fetch your slippers from the rug that lies in front of the open fire, I smile to myself and think 'It's just like we planned.'

All my love,

Veronica

xx


End file.
